Calumet Photo UK Reviews 

Bought a lens on the website showing as available. Calumet took payment then 2 hours later I receive an email stating the lens was sold in store and website was not updated. Rang the store who said the lens was sold online! Something did not add up.

They then tried to offer 'store credit' towards another purchase instead of a refund!

Now I am sat waiting almost a week for a refund of my £500.00. Not how to do business. Calumet should not be trusted. Some advice - do not take the funds without checking the item is in stock first.

I bought an item Calumet via Amazon and my order was abruptly cancelled a couple of days later. They then re-listed the item at a higher price.

I set an order with that store for a camera. My bank validated the transaction.

Then I received notification that they require, identification, and utility bill with the address, which is dangerous and unnacceptable to send passport ID via email.

No matter what I provided those and they still rejected my order.

Not worth the hassle, shop elsewhere.

I have had 3 dealings with Calumetphoto now and none of them unfortunately has been plain-sailing. The first I ordered a tripod over the Black Friday weekend which was not delivered on time - the person I spoke to said that they had been really busy. When I asked if they could not have forseen that the Black Friday weekend would have been busy he had no answer. The second, a lens, arrived a day late this time without any particular explanation. The most recent order, for a body and lens, was placed on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend with next working day delivery and so I presumed would arrive on the next working day, a Tuesday. When I placed the order all the items were showing as in stock but when I called on the Tuesday to check on the order I was told that not only had it not been sent yet but that one item was now out of stock and "probably was in stock on the Friday when you placed your order but was sold off the shop floor over the weekend". When I asked if it was common practice to take customers' money and then sell their items off the shop floor the person I was speaking to (who incidentally kept referring to me by the wrong name) then backtracked and said that the item probably wasn't in stock when I ordered it (which it was). She said that she would look into the stock situation and then call me back. I then got a call back after about 10 minutes and miraculously they had found a body and it would be with me the next day but the lens would be arriving "at some point later in the week". At the time of writing the body arrived yesterday, a day late, and the lens is now showing as out for delivery and so, if it arrives today, will be 2 days late. I have only used Calumet in the past as they have had good offers on and / or were cheaper than their competitors (which is why I'm giving 3 stars) but in the future I think I will pay extra and stick with a company that I know gives good service (i.e. Wex).

Please don't go to the Glasgow branch for advice unless you are a seasoned Pro looking to purchase a high end Full frame Pro DSLR as they are not interested. Wanted to look for a Mirrorless camera to replace my ageing Canon 60D but was treated with arrogance and I felt greatly intimidated by these so called Expert Salesman.
I wanted to know how the LUMIX GX8 compared to the XT1 and XT10. 'What's a LUMIX" was his reply. Although I did purchase a GX7 from them a few months earlier. Seems like the only language they understand is 1D, 5D, D5 or Leica.
The showroom was excellent though and had lots of gear on display.

After looking at some of the other peoples reviews I wasn't too sure about using these guys, but I'm glad I did.

I ordered a head for a tripod at 2pm and it arrived neatly packaged the very next day.

So from my experience 5 out of 5 and highly recommended.

Also the item was £20 cheaper than I found it for elsewhere, I will definitely be using these guys for my next equipment upgrade.

Calumet used to be the best camera store. At college our photography teachers would make us pop in to the stores on day trips. Great store in Euston. They taught us about equipment rental. It was great. So when the company i work for allowed me to buy new equipment for the studio. First port of call calumet. First time round the company spent £3500 but ended up going to rival as internal purchasing found them to be cheaper. The second time £2000+ I said I wanted to use calumet. We used them and boy was it a mistake. Weeks and weeks of waiting. A tripod head would arrive and the legs 3 weeks later. Stupid me decided to give them one last chance this time £1500 of goods ordered. Two months later still waiting for a Konova K5-150 Slider Kit (150cm) . When ordered it said "ORDER NOW: AWAITING STOCK " Over two months waiting. The person dealing with the order is the most useless person ever. Forgetting items on the order. I found another company online that sell most of the parts i need and they are actually in stock. Ordered cancelled, New company who i wont name will now be our go to company. What they do not realise is that every bad experience has been echoed down the line. Calumets name in the company i work for is now muck. Imagine what the thoughts of the marketing director are when i have to explain that a shoot has been canceled 3 times due to waiting for calumet. Won't ever use them again. I saw a website that staff can rate. I can clearly see why the service is so bad. New owners will run the company in to the ground. Destroy the great name in the process.

Calumet gave me good service with my most recent order. Thank you

I ordered above item via paypal from calumet photographic online this morning. I thought everything had gone through as should have untill i receieved an email from them asking for further information. A member of staff called Jorge to be precise. Bearing in mind i had just paid via paypal here was Jorge asking for photographic ID and a utility bill to be sent. I contacted paypal and they were as bemused as i was. . .I was told under no circumstace whatsoever to forward any such information. Now i have to wait seven days before opening a dispute through paypal.

I am not usually one to complain, but on this occasion I was extremely justified to do so.

So after owning my Canon 5D Mk3 for just over a year it developed a fault with the shutter. As you do, I took my camera back to Calumet for it to be repaired. They informed me it could take 6-8 weeks which is fair enough.

When the 8 weeks was up, I contacted them to see if they had got it back and they said not yet, so I then HAD TO ASK THEM to chase it up for me! Me being their customer!

When I didn't get a response I went in to the store where I was created by only one person on the whole shop floor, I explained my situation and said that there had been no update.

A couple of days later and still no contact, I called them to find out more and a chocolate teapot would have been more help. Eventually I got through to the manager of the store who assured me they would personally chase it up and gave me their personal details.

After a number of days of back and forth they agreed to lend me a rental camera free of charge for the time the investigation was going on. You may think this is generous of them but it took me 5 phone calls and numerous emails just to get that!

As time rolled on I was getting more and more frustrated at the situation and expressed my dissatisfaction at the way it was being handled and that I was entitled to a replacement camera as the courier had lost mine, funny that around Christmas Time.

When I eventually was able to pick up the rental camera, I went in the store and gave my name to pick it up and the lad behind the counter said "Oh yeah, the Canon f**k up". I kept my cool and refrained from saying anything to him, but made sure the store manager knew all about it. Again, no remorse was shown to me for that, it was simply put down to him just being himself.

When I came to give the rental back and receive my new camera after over 12 weeks from the day I sent it off for repair there was no offer of recompense at all in the store or on the website.

I was, am and will always be a dissatisfied customer of Calumet Manchester. Everyone reading this review, please take heed of this experience and thank you for taking the time to read this all the way to this point.

If you are looking to purchase a £3000 camera, here is not the place to do it.

Had an offer on the page for a free year of photoshop. After buying the product I discovered this was a mistake in their part and the offer referred to a different product.

Complete lack of a reply from the customer service email, very dissapointed in my experience with Calumet

I bought a "brand new" Canon lens at the show. Or so I was told and reassured by the middle age male salesman with grey hair.

I have just unpacked it and to my sheer horror it has a worn DEMO label and old style lens cap. Aside from it being not new, cashback could be invalid for it and it could be rather bashed. In short they totally and knowingly conned me. Tomorrow I am going out of my way back to the show to return it and submit a formal complaint.

To be fair on them I had reasonable experience in the past with Calumet stores, if a little overpriced. However yesterday they destroyed my trust.

I would suggest anyone buying from them to fully unpack and inspect your purchases. You'd rather find out before you bring it home. Be safe.

Used for years, generally high quality product and staff service, let down recently at main branch but purchased from other branch that was polite and knowledgeable.

Never had any problems, highly recommended!

Calumet offer a wide selection of high quality / professional photo- and video hardware. Prices are usually fair, but typically in the hight end. We have not shopped for lowest price, but expected Calumet service to be a lot better – considering the price point.

What we have experienced is slow response ( mail and telephone ), frustratingly poor follow-up on back ordered items, order status and service orders.

We have also experienced Calumet charging our credit card – long before the products were shipped. Not acceptable!

The product portfolio is terrific – so we hope Calumet improve their service.

I ordered a Canon 5D MKII with kit lenses from Calumetphoto.co.uk. The item despite a very short supply was delivered promptly and safely. After some testing I found out that the product was factory defective (wrong shutter). The company helped to resolve the issues (I wanted to keep the camera) and provided really good customer care service and assistance.